My cabinets are 34.5". If the existing countertops are comfortable to use and if your planned seating will be the correct height, I would match it. The good thing about an island though is it is an opportunity to contrast existing cabinetry.

There will be no seating at this island - it's just a work/prep/storage island

Hi Chess, 34.5 is a standard in the manufacturing of kitchen cabinetry. But i have installed cabinets that were at 35" ? from wolf (Aristocraft) and not the greatest quality (builder grade). I Would recommend if you are doing nothing else in your kitchen, going with the existing height of your base cabinets if you have that option.

When we moved in to our house, the counters were at 37". I'm not particularly short (5'6") but I am still happy that our new kitchen has 36" counters. If your island is your main prep space and you aren't particularly tall, I'd consider going with the standard. It's a more comfortable work height for most women, and a reasonable number of men (DH is same height as me, so it was too high for him too)

Cabinet heights and widths are a standard integrated system so as to be modular and all work together. If you change one thing, you change everything, and it will all be custom sizing. It all still has to work to fit together as a whole. You will need to figure out new door and drawer heights, that will work across the installation as well as toekick dimensions, ets.

The Cook's Kitchen, I am ordering Barker cabinets - all size options are selected online. It IS custom sizing, and they figure all that out. All I do is select the options. If you have not used their site, you should try it. It is pretty cool.

townlakecakes, I am not that tall, 5'7", but have always been comfortable with my counter heights. I just hate to have a different height if it will look "off". I will have to give this some more thought!

I have used their site. To sell against. :) I beat them easily in end pricing and customization. :)

I do a lot of design work for a great local custom cabinet maker. He can make anything I ask. 5000 different shades of white, or eggplant purple, or bookmatched walnut. But he doesn't design anything. He can make suggestions, based on construction variables, and wood properties, but he doesn't do kitchen design at all. He is a cabinet maker. That's Barker. (Except for the customization. They really lack in that.) They can guide you in some things, but they don't design for you. They just make what you tell them to make.

You have to decide where you want the extra height if you want taller than standard sizing. That is not something that anyone decides for you. Or should decide for you. You may want extra room in your drawers instead of in your door height. Or extra tall toe kick if you have big feet. Any one of a dozen variables. Those are all decisions made by the person specifying and designing the kitchen. In the absence of a kitchen designer, that designer becomes you, and those design decisions are all decided by you. Where do you want that height? :) Or, do you want lower than average height for your island?

I would like to add some more details to what is considered "industry standard" in this case.

Standard base cabinet height is 30". When you include the toe-kick or toe-molding, which is usually between 4" - 4.5", this is where you end up with 34.5" as your base cabinet height. When you include the height or thickness of a counter-top, which is usually between 1" -1.5", your end result is a countertop that sits somewhere close to 35" - 36" in height (floor to countertop.)

I don't know all of the details about your kitchen in particular but you may be able to do all of your adjusting by simply changing the sub base height (the toe-kick area.) Check to see if your base cabinet boxes are 30" tall, if so - you will be making your custom height modifications below the cabinet. This is fairly easy to do and you can purchase sub-base cabinet legs that are easily adjustable!

You don't know what you don't know. Barker isn't custom. At best, they are semi custom. They produce a nice enough, but expensive product for what you actually get.

Your order's accuracy and details is all about your measurements and numbers. If something doesn't work, like incorrect clearances, or an aesthetically unpleasing door alignment, that's is all you. You get to re order at your cost.

The Cook's Kitchen - all good points, and I would assume, frankly, that the extra height does not change at ALL the drawer widths, as those are all listed on their site. When I say "custom" I mean custom in the sense of the options they offer. Obviously this is not the same as a completely custom island - I know that. I have received local quotes from cabinet makers, but so far, they are far above what Barker costs.

Sophie Wheeler, agreed. "semi custom" is a better term. So far though, they are offering the best price for what I want.

Scherr's Cabinets & Doors Inc, thank you. I will measure the actual boxes when I get home. I did place a block of a 4x4 under the toe kick last night, as I was just trying to decide if I wanted one on the island. The 4x4 fit exactly into the kick space. I think that means that it is 3.5" by 3.5", but again, not sure. I will measure tonight. If it matters - these existing cabinets were completely custom - "stick built" , or "built in place", I believe, are the terms usually used.

Sophie Wheeler, LOL at "out of my depth". I am learning, no worries. I like to do as much as I can myself. I have had nothing but bad experiences with every single pro service that I have hired, in the last 5 years, at both my house and my parents. (Okay - I do have a good plumber thank GOD!) I am so over the lack of professionalism and quality workmanship today. Honestly I think it is sheer luck if you find a true professional that has pride in their work these days. If I can do it myself, I prefer to. I don't have the time to build my own cabinets, but if I did, I promise you I would learn what I needed to do so. And they would be very well built.

All that said, I am not dismissing the idea of a local cabinetmaker, yet.

Custom height is invaluable for really tall or short cooks, but it throws off EVERYTHING ELSE. It throws off wall cabinet plans and dishwasher or other under-the-counter appliance space and any slide-in range.

Ideally, a counter hits you around where your thigh hits your hip. If you need something higher, first choice is to reconfigure for a deeper countertop--build up a framework above the cabinets and have a deep edge put on your material. You can go up to 4" thick that way and have a design statement and only mess with upper cabinet placement--no problems with under cabinet appliances or lower cabinet dimensions. Still can't do that with a slide-in range wall. This would make the counters ideally comfortable for someone up to 6' to maybe 6'2" without a thick cutting board under the prep space.

The next choice is to start messing with toe kicks (cheaper option) or the cabinets (expensive option)--messing with cabinets and adding a top filler for the undercounted appliance will look less weird.

Bearing in mind that designing for a taller person then makes it a pain for a smaller person, my preference is to put a specialty height area in an island that has no appliances except a sink and/or cooktop. Then the design choices mess with other areas far less

In your case, you have no pressing need for taller cabinetry. I see no reason to do them and many reasons not to. Id go with standard.

Milly Rey, to clarify, I am not looking at doing taller cabinetry. I am only getting this island ( no sink no cooktop no seating) - nothing else, and was surprised that all my existing countertops are higher than what is considered standard. So my decision will be whether or not to make island shorter than everything else in my kitchen. I am not changing anything in the existing cabinetry at all.

Chess, will you put the same quartz countertop on this island you are building that you recently installed on your existing cabinets? Or something different? Will the island be stationary and fastened to your floor or on casters?

I am with you on trying to do as much as you can yourself. I like being in control and the satisfaction of completing a task makes me happy.

Mobuddy89, yes this quartz is from the slabs I used for my counters. I had to pay for 2 even though I needed only 1.5, so I figured this was the time to do that island I've always thought about. It will be stationary and attached to floor.

So my base cabinets are definitely a bit non-standard. The toe kick is 3.5". From the bottom of the cabinet to the top, measures just a hair under 32". (That does not include the toe kick.) I measured them all, and they are the same. So that is my 36.5" - 3.5 toe kick, 31.9 (or so) base cabinet, and 1.1 (or so) quartz top.

But this is weird - while it sounds like I have roomy cabinets, I actually don't, because the bottom of the cabinet actually sits UP off the base, 2 inches. I actually have a lot of WASTED space here. And I can reach up under those bottom fronts too, they are open to the toe kick base frame below.

I've never thought about it because I am just used to them. But they look completely different from the other cabinets I see online.

In any event, I have decided to make the island the same height as the counters.

Sophie, I guess you can't do math. The cabinets are 23 years old so I think that qualifies as this century. And I would never get rid of them unless I was doing a full kitchen rrenovation, and obviously that is not what this is about. Stay on topic, please.

And for what it's worth, the existing cabinets were made by one of this areas best local cabinet makers when this house was built. They are actually very good cabinets. Very sturdy, very stable. They definitely lack some features that are present in high-quality cabinets today, but I have no intention of replacing them at all. In fact I just this spring finished the exhausting and daunting task of painting all of my cabinets trim and doors. And I am extremely pleased with how they look now.

I can do math. 23 years is last century. But their construction technique is older than 23 years. You gotta go back to the 70's for that kind of obsolete site built construction. Unless you are in TX. For some reason, hack site builders still litter that area of the country.

You could gain MAJOR improvement in functionality by replacing all of your cabinets. With new modern ones.

Sophie Wheeler, 23 years is WITHIN the last hundred years. That was my point. Using your logic, a house built in 2001 was instantly obsolete.

Site built /stick built construction is actually considered to be desirable - completely custom, and often done in higher end homes. Is it cheaper to build modular and install? It can be - it's certainly more convenient for the homeowner. But for new construction, site built is great. Can both be equal in quality? Sure. I only know about this because I know a few builders, and we've actually discussed this exact topic.

Hell I could gain major improvements just by replacing all the doors and drawers and all new hardware. But what I have still works quite well. If I had issues with drawers sticking and doors that didn't fit right, that would be a different story. But I don't. Everything works and fits as it should, so I will pursue changes where I need them. And those changes are all that we really should be discussing here. Again, thanks for the advice, but your suggestions have nothing to do with my topic.

Chess, personally I would just select the standard Barker cabinet height. It sounds like you're building a stand-alone island and I don't think your eye will notice slight differences in cabinet height or toekick height, etc since the island is separate from your perimeter wall cabinets. I'd be concerned that changing from their standard height could be inviting factory screw-ups to your order. Good luck.

Chess-- my short answer is to make it shorter. :). No one will notice that it's shorter. Making it match is borrowing trouble.

Not sure how that would be borrowing trouble, LOL. But I am going with 36".